Bachelor 2014 Ratings Drop in Week 2 — By How Much?

How anyone watches anything besides The Bachelor on Monday nights, we don’t know. But it happens, and although the 18th season of the ABC show premiered with the highest ratings in three years, the follow-up week didn’t do quite so well. How low did things go?

The initial rating review by Zap2It’s TV by the Numbers projected a series low for a regular episode (read: not “Women Tell All” or other specials) of the show, with a 2.2 rating in the coveted 18-49 segment of the population. While there wasn’t a huge drop in viewership this week — Episode 2 pulled in 7.88, about 600,000 below the premiere — it was a big drop-off from the 2.7 rating it brought in the previous Monday.

That low of a number hasn’t been seen since Ben Flajnik’s second week of The Bachelor Season 16. The episode’s ratings come on the heels of a truly abysmal audience size for the January 12 The Bachelor: Behind the Scenes special, which aired opposite the Golden Globes. That special got only 3.29 million viewers and a 0.9 rating. Ouch.

Lucky for The Bachelor, TV by the Numbers later adjusted the Season 18, Episode 2 rating up to a 2.3, which means it’s only tied for second worst. Surprisingly, the episode that ties? Well, that would be Sean Lowe’s season premiere!

While we wish more people would tune in to see the magic Juan Pablo Galavis brings to the small screen, we haven’t lost heart. After all, Sean managed to jump to a 3.8 rating with nearly 11 million viewers for his season finale.

What do you think: Is this ratings lowpoint telling of the rest of JPG’s season? Share your thoughts below!